Saturday, April 11, 2015
3:02:14 AM EDT

Revenue Growth Is Soaring

by
James Brown

Stop Loss: 144.25
Target(s): To Be Determined
Current Option Gain/Loss: Unopened
Average Daily Volume = 1.3 million
Entry on April -- at $---.--
Listed on April 09, 2015
Time Frame: Exit PRIOR to earnings in late May
New Positions: Yes, see below

Why We Like It:
The world we live in is quickly turning into a digital one. That makes cyber threats and the security to stop them a huge business. Just this past week there were headlines that Russian hackers had invaded the White House and accessed sensitive data.

There is a nearly constant stream of headlines about big name American companies being hacked. Some of the recent ones include Anthem, Home Depot, JPMorgan Chase, and Target. Even the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite system has been hacked (allegedly by Chinese hackers). More and more we're seeing sophisticated attacks from unfriendly governments (e.g. Russia, Iran, China, and North Korea).

PANW is cashing in on the growing need for online security. According to the company, "Palo Alto Networks is leading a new era in cybersecurity by protecting thousands of enterprise, government, and service provider networks from cyber threats. Unlike fragmented legacy products, our security platform safely enables business operations and delivers protection based on what matters most in today's dynamic computing environments: applications, users, and content."

Earnings have been skyrocketing. The company has been beating Wall Street's estimates on both the top and bottom line. PANW has also been consistently guiding higher, above analysts' estimates. The last three quarters have seen revenue growth above +50% each.

Their latest report was March 2nd. Analysts were expecting $0.17 a share on revenues of $203.99 million. PANW delivered $0.19 with revenues up +54% to $217.7 million. Management guided the current quarter to $0.19-0.20 a share with revenues of $219-223 million. Wall Street was only expecting $0.19 on revenues of $214 million.

PANW recently held their analyst day on March 30th and the general consensus was pretty optimistic. One firm said PANW's growth opportunities are red hot. PANW also released a new subscription service - the AutoFocus cyber threat intelligence service. PANW's senior VP of product management, Lee Klarich, commented on their new product saying, "The Palo Alto Networks AutoFocus threat intelligence service enables security teams to significantly close the gap on the time it takes to identify and prevent advanced, targeted cyber attacks. By putting cyber threats in a context that speaks specifically to their network and industry, using the largest data set aggregated across customers and industries, we are helping customers around the world take a more strategic approach to securing their organizations."

Technically the long-term trend is higher. Yet shares of PANW have been consolidating sideways in the $135-150.00 zone for the last six weeks. That consolidation is narrowing with shares up sharply this past week. The stock looks poised to breakout past resistance near $150 soon. Wall Street's median price target is currently $165.00. I suspect it could go a lot higher over the next twelve months.

We want to be ready if PANW does break through round-number, psychological resistance at the $150.00 level. Tonight we are suggesting a trigger to buy calls at $150.55.

Trigger @ $150.55

- Suggested Positions -

Buy the JUN $155 CALL (PANW150619C155) current ask $6.20
option price is a current quote and not a suggested entry price.

Entry disclaimer: To avoid an unfavorable entry point, we will not launch a new play if the stock gaps open more than $1.00 past our suggested entry point.